The Clorox Company last week launched the first smartphone application and mobile website giving consumers easy access to information about product ingredients.
The mobile access is an expansion of the company’s Ingredients Inside initiative, which began in 2009 with a website and represents a movement by leading brands to increase transparency about the materials and chemicals used in their consumer products.
With the new smartphone app, customers can scan the UPC code of any Clorox household and commercial disinfecting, cleaning or laundry product in the U.S. and Canada and instantly see a list of ingredients.
"Mobile computing is triggering a shift in how consumers access information to make purchasing decisions," says Clorox Chairman & CEO Don Knauss.
According to a recent Nielsen Mobile Media report, 49 percent of mobile consumers say they frequently use their smartphones while shopping. In a separate Clorox survey, 62 percent of Americans said they believe it's important to know what goes into their household cleaning products, and 60 percent who own smartphones said a mobile app would make them more likely to read a household cleaning product's ingredient information.
The application can be downloaded for free from Apple’s iPhone App Store and it will be available for other mobile devices soon, the company said.
The Clorox Company's Ingredients Inside program now also features an application programming interface (API) that allows third-party developers working on product ingredient programs and applications to easily access the company's ingredient data.
Bart King is a PR consultant and principal at Cleantech Communications.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Bart King is the founder and principal at New Growth Communications. He specializes in helping sustainability leaders develop thought leadership content and strategy
Published Jan 23, 2012 12pm EST / 9am PST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET